New Mexico Republicans are hitting the road for a three-day event – and they’re going out of range of this state’s public health orders.
From May 14-16, the state GOP is hosting “Operation Freedom” in Amarillo, about four hours east of Albuquerque.
The “weekend getaway” promises great food, entertainment, party favors and more. Tickets for the gathering are $250 per person or $300 per couple. It will be held at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Amarillo Downtown. The operation is being billed as a weekend for political planning, idea sharing and to show appreciation for the party’s State Central Committee members, according to the event invitation.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio are expected speakers.
VOTERS EBB AND FLOW: How did Republican objections to the 2020 presidential elections and the storming of the Capitol building by supporters of former President Donald Trump supporters affect the Bernalillo County voter rolls? Hard to say.
Hundreds of Bernalillo County Republicans changed their political affiliation after the election, but so have Democrats.
Statewide. Both of the two major political parties have lost a small number of registered voters.
In December and January, 1,664 registered Republicans in Bernalillo County changed their voter registration to leave the party, according to Bernalillo County voter records. There were 732 people who left the party in December 2020 and 932 in January, according to the records.
Of those who left the party, 418 became Democrats.
While it’s a sizeable chunk of voters, the number of registered voters who left the GOP only represents about 1.2% of the party’s registered voters in the county.
There were 126,141 registered Republicans in Bernalillo County last month, according to the clerk’s office. Between December 2020 and February 2021, the GOP had a net gain of 82, according to voter records.
During the same time period, Bernalillo County Democrats added 1,063 new voters, giving the party 212,307 registered voters in the state’s most populous county.
But there were also hundreds of registered Democrats in Bernalillo County who left the party after the election.
According to voting records, 1,201 Bernalillo County Democrats changed their voter registration in December and 306 did in January. That’s about 0.7% of the party’s voters who changed their voter registration to leave the party in that two-month window.
A total of 537 of those Democratic voters became Republicans.
Statewide, in November 2020 there were 611,464 registered Democrats in New Mexico, amounting to 45.1% of the state’s electorate. In February, there were 599 fewer registered Democrats, according to data from the Secretary of State’s Office. Democrats last month accounted for 44.9% of voters across the state.
On the Republican side, there were 425,616 registered members in November 2020, which was 31.4% of the state’s voters. Last month, there were 1,022 fewer Republicans in New Mexico. The 424,594 GOP members were 31.2% of voters.
CANDIDATES COMING SOON: The Republican and Democratic candidates for the 1st Congressional District will be unveiled later this month.
Deb Haaland resigned from her seat representing most of Albuquerque and the surrounding areas in the House this week, and she was sworn in as the secretary of interior on Thursday. There will be a special election to determine who will fill the seat June 1.
The New Mexico Republican Party said its State Central Committee will vote on its candidate March 27.
The Democratic Party of New Mexico will vote on its candidate March 30.
Ryan Boetel: rboetel@abqjournal.com
